Frequently demonised, and in some cases accused of witchcraft, wise, powerful or outspoken women have been historically cast as difficult, transgressive, or evil. Despite significant progress in terms of gender equality over the past two centuries, prominent and successful women continue to be vilified on social and other media. This online edition of the WISPS annual conference engaged with the notion of difficult women across centuries and throughout the Lusophone and Hispanic worlds.

4th november

15.00 - 15.10: Opening of conference by WISPS President, Mercedes Carbayo-Abengózar

​15:15-16:00: Keynote address by Dr Rubí Carreño Bolívar, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile -- 'Con todo si no pa' qué: Mon Laferte ¿baladista, cantante de protesta o delincuente?'

​16.15-17.35: Panel 1: Powerful Women Now and Then

Chair: María Lydia Polotto

​Victoria Rasbridge (UCL) Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Distancing and Dispelling Female Power in Lope de Vega

Sandra Araya Rojas (King’s College London): Forgotten on Corruption Charges. The Journals of Jane Fitch Trumbull (Chile, 1850-1875)

Lucia Bastos (Independent human rights researcher): Maria da Penha and her feminist advocacy experience

Louise Evans (University of Liverpool): Women challenging the canon: Understanding Spanish social media poetry as a ‘wilderness unbroken by fences, judges, sheriffs, or notions of hierarchy’ (Stein, 2010: 96)

Jenni M. Lehtinen (Nazarbayev University): A Farewell to Bad Romance?: Witchcraft, Romantic Love, and Female Emancipation in Netflix’s Siempre bruja

​17.45-18.45: AGM

Interested in attending this year's WISPS conference? View the full programme here: https://www.wispsacademic.org/wispsconference2021